Comments on: The Best Player for Audiobooks and Podcasts

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By: Maria

Maria — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:28:59 +0000

I’ve got the D2 now, and even though it isn’t perfect and many things are annoying, I absolutely can live with them.
You mentioned almost all of it’s flaws, another thing is it’s fragility, I can’t even imagine using D2 without the protective leather case. Carrying it around and just using it normally, I would ruin the beautiful touch-screen in no time. And the case of course, makes it even bulkier and even less handy.

I also got a Sandisk Sansa Fuze to test. Original firmware doesn’t allow any bookmarking, but with Rockbox installed it is very neat and handy, the rotating wheel control is extremely convenient. And the player is very inexpensive!

Still, I’m reluctunt to part with the D2. It’s over the top for audiobooks, but it’s great if you also love music and use it to watch videos (the screen is larger and much better than that of the Fuze).

By: Pavel

Pavel — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:19:27 +0000

On second thoughts I added a few more entries to the “cons” list above.

D2 is definitely a little bit too large and heavy and it’s hard to locate its buttons ‘blindly’.

Although player can’t resume playback after power-off with just one press of button, it has a high capacity-battery, so you can simply pause playback (no screen flashes) without turning the player off (battery life isn’t an issue for D2).

Anyway, I suggest you to try the player for yourself before forming an opinion about whether it’s right for you.

By: Maria

Maria — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:17:01 +0000

Thanks for the info!

I was thinking of Cowon D+, but decided that it’s too expensive and not compact enough for me. Maybe I should reconsider. How convenient is it ot operate it ‘blindly’ with one hand in a pocket?

Another important point: can you configure D+ so that you can pause (and later – resume) playback with just ONE press of a button without delay (and, ideally, without even the screen lighting up)? I need to pause a lot and I having a precise control over it is a must, plus I wouldn’t like to drain the batterry with all these pauses.

By: Pavel

Pavel — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:59:14 +0000

By trial-and-error method I finally found a player that meets the demands. I bought Cowon D2+ 16GB (with 32GB memory card) and use it for both audiobooks and lossless music.

Pros:
– large high-quality touchscreen (2.5 in, 320×240 pixels, 16M colors)
– long battery life (up to 52 hours for audio playback)
– expandable memory (up to 32GB SD/SDHC/MMC card)
– 3 customizable hardware buttons
– standard Mini-USB connector (drag-and-drop file transfer)
– outstanding sound quality
– many supported audio formats (MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, WAV, APE)
– comprehensive bookmarks support (up to 256 bookmarks, multiple bookmarks per file, proper handling of file sequences)
– playback resume after power-off
– dynamic playlist (up to 256 entries)
– playback boundaries (all files, folder, single file)
– folder browsing (gestures supported)
– progress bar with instant navigation
– audible.com support
– bonus features: video, skins, flash

Cons:
– dimensions (78 × 55.4 × 16.6 mm) and weight (91 g)
– not enough hardware buttons (3 instead of 5)
– hardware buttons are too small and too close together
– “resume” requires two extra clicks
– annoying database corruptions
– high price

Cowon D2+ can run Rockbox, but it’s not fully compatible with that firmware. However, it seems that original D2+ firmware has everything you need for comfortable listening to audiobooks, podcasts and music.

By: Maria

Maria — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:23:25 +0000

Thanks for the article, Pavel. All the ideas are very true.
I, too, love audiobooks and podcasts and listen to them a lot both for entertainment and for learning foreign languages.
I’ve been happily using a quite simple and inexpensive Cowon U2 (http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/cowon-iaudio-u2-1gb/1707-6490_7-31129769.html) player for more than 5 years now, and I must say, it’s IDEAL for audiobooks.
It works without a problem with the folder structure, there are bookmarks (one per file, but I never needed more), A-B playback, a playlist, configurable search speed, and the user interface is brilliant, simple and intuitive. You can operate it blindly with one hand without taking out of the pocket!

Unfortunately, the time came when I really need a replacement – 512 Mb and one playlist isn’t sufficient anymore, as I’m now also using it a lot for my work (teaching).

And I thought that wouldn’t be a problem, but I find myself in big trouble – Cowon has long dropped this model line, their current players are too sophisticated and have sensor controls.

I tried ‘Transcend T.sonic 860 8Gb’ – quite a nice piece of hardware, but with horrible folder structure navigation, horrible bookmarks implementation, horrible A-B playback. The features are there, but they are unusable for my purposes.
For example, if I start playing a file “track56.mp3″ from a bookmark – the device plays it and then stops, it never takes me to file “track57.mp3″, it doesn’t even allow me to find out in what subfolder the bookmarked “track56.mp3″ resides.

Is it in /Coursebook3/Level2/Disk3/ or

is it in /Coursebook1/Level1/Disk14/

- if I don’t remember it – I’m lost for ever!

Pavel, could you name the players that you own that are the closest to the ideal audiobook mp3 player?

(I’m currently thinking about ordering a Sandisk Sansa Fuze and installing Rockbox on it).

By: KarenLaVelle

KarenLaVelle — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:37:36 +0000

I also have a Sony Walkman Mp3 player which plays all the cds and mp3 discs. This is a terrific little player and it beats my little tiny mp3player because it saves my place and I don’t have to spend 2 hours searching through files. my tiny mp3 player sucked every file on my computer and I don’t know how to get a single book without it downloading the entire computer everytime I plug it up to charge it. It also won’t play my self-recorded stuff off the computer. I prefer either a tape player or cd at the moment.

By: Bookwoman

Bookwoman — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:40:30 +0000

There is a Sony Walkman CD player that has a bookmark feature. I wouldn’t listen to CDs without it.

By: Don

Don — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 07:41:02 +0000

Pavel, I applaud your well thought out and discussed thoughts on this subject – but since many of us use the free downloadable audiobooks from the library, (overdrive) which are not rockbox compatable – that leaves us with discussing the current retail selection.

My CREATIVE Zen V Plus recently died (second to do so in 2 years) and I need a replacement that does not simply “resume” as Apple Ipod does. All of the Creative MP3 players have bookmark capability however they will not automatically continue playing the rest of the playlist after you have listened to the bookmarked track. I am looking for suggestions.

By: RoShFe

RoShFe — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:09:09 +0000

FYI: … While I agree that RockBox is an awesome solution for people listening to MP3 audiobooks, it will unfortunately not help those of us using DRM protected WMA audiobooks similar to most of the titles available from our public libraries via Overdrive.

As per the Rockbox website FAQ (http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GeneralFAQ#Will_Rockbox_play_WMA_files) “It is very unlikely that Rockbox will be able to play protected WMA files.” and can attest to this personally as I have loaded it onto my Sansa e260

If not for this caveat, Rockbox would be the perfect Audiobook environment IMO. If your Audiobooks are not DRM protected, I agree with Pavel 100%

Cheers…